Jon Bernthal joins 'Daredevil' as the Punisher

Furthering Marvel's assumed goal of taking over every spare minute of our viewing time, the comics firm announced on Marvel.com Tuesday that Daredevil is about to have some company on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen. The Man Without Fear will soon be joined by Frank Castle, better known by his nom de guerre, The Punisher.

"The Walking Dead" alum Jon Bernthal will don the Punisher's iconic skull shirt (and, if the costume designers are feeling bold, white jackboots) in the second season of the Netflix Original superhero show.

Jeph Loeb, Marvel's Head of Television, said Bernthal "brings an unmatched intensity to every role he takes on, with a potent blend of power, motivation and vulnerability that will connect with audiences. Castle's appearance will bring dramatic changes to the world of Matt Murdock and nothing will be the same."

Bernthal joins a returning Charlie Cox as the eponymous Daredevil, Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk and Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page. Other "Daredevil" mainstays Elektra and Bullseye have been rumoured to appear in season two, but no concrete casting has been announced.

The Punisher first appeared in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man comic book in 1974, and he's been waging his one-man war on crime ever since. A US military veteran, the Punisher is a vigilante driven to fight organised crime with brutal, often lethal, methods following the horrific death of his wife and children caught in the crossfire of a mob shootout.

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Bernthal is the fourth actor to step into Castle's shoes in a live-action role, following Dolph Lundgren in 1989, Tom Jane in 2004 and Ray Stevenson in Lexi Alexander's criminally underrated "Punisher: War Zone" in 2008.

Frank Castle has also made a number of animated appearances, including "Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore," where, in a strange turn, he was voiced by another "Walking Dead" cast member, Norman Reedus.

The second season of Marvel's "Daredevil" will arrive in 2016 and the first season is currently streaming on Netflix.